The Core Office Development videos cover working with data in Office, writing VBA code and core UI customization with VBA. The HOL highlights working with data in Office using Excel and document assembly in Word using VBA.

Microsoft is about to embark upon a 6 week, 15 city tour to discuss the Windows Azure Platform. See the table below for more details. The cloud means a whole of things to different people, but one thing is certain – the cloud implies scale. Here’s a few factoids:

How cool is this: by focusing on your app and abstracting away the infrastructure details, you can deploy almost any app with minimal fuss! In this session, we’ll walk you through the basics of Windows Azure deployment, including site monitoring, diagnostics and performance issues.

Highlights include:

– Start-to-Finish Visual Studio demos of:

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A realistic XML data driven business web site from the desktop to the cloud.

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A realistic SQL Server data driven business web site from the desktop to the cloud.

– What exactly is “Cloud Computing”? What apps are best suited for it?

– Microsoft’s commitment to the Cloud: The virtualization platform and data centers

– How to get started in the cloud: Deploying and managing applications

– Will I save money by doing this? (Using the Azure TCO tool)

SESSION 2:

Hyper-V: Tools to Build the Ultimate Virtual Test Network

In this session, you’ll learn how to use the resources of a TechNet subscription, Windows Server 2008R2, Hyper-V, and a new, free sysinternals tool called Disk2vhd, to build the ultimate test or training environment.

Highlights include:

– TechNet subscription: What is it? How do I get one? What does it cost?

– Virtual Hard Disks: format interoperability and disk types

– Connectivity with legacy network adapters and network adapters

SESSION 3:

Windows 7 Deployment

Deploying Windows 7 is easy if you’re using the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2010. This session will walk you through the various tools that can help simplify your deployments.

The Windows Sensor and Location platform, enables your applications to adapt to their current environment. Sensors would include GPS devices, WWAN etc. — your applications and gadgets can know exactly where they are, enabling them to provide more locally relevant content and functionality.

Michael Scherotter, a Media Experience Evangelist at Microsoft created an easy way for Expression Blend users to design applications that use sensors. Please visit the Synergist for more information.

January 2010 – Summary

PHP Core – PHP 5.2.12 release

The PHP 5.2.12 has been released and is available on http://windows.php.net and is also offered via Web Platform Installer. The release has more than 60 bug fixes, some of which are security related.

Further details about the PHP 5.2.12 release can be found in the release announcement, and the full list of changes are available in the ChangeLog.

FastCGI Extension 1.5 for IIS 6.0 and IIS 5.1

IIS team has released to web FastCGI Extension 1.5 for IIS 6.0 and IIS 5.1. This version is based on FastCGI Extension 1.0 and it adds several important improvements and features, including most notably:

· Monitor changes to a file. The extension can be configured to listen for file change notifications on a specific file and when that file changes, the extension will recycle FastCGI processes for the process pool. This feature can be used to recycle PHP processes when changes to php.ini file occur.

· Real-time tuning of MaxInstances setting. This MaxInstances setting dictates the maximum number of FastCGI processes which can be launched for each application pool. If it is set to 0 then FastCGI extension will automatically adjust the number of instances up or down every few seconds based on the system load and number of requests waiting in the queue.

Windows Cache Extension for PHP

WinCache 1.0.1 – Servicing Release

IIS team has released an update to Wincache 1.0. The update fixes several important bugs reported by customers. More details about WinCache 1.0.1 servicing release can be found in the release announcement. The update can be downloaded from here. The source code is available on pecl.php.net.

PHP Interoperability

New version of Zend Framework adds support for Microsoft Windows Azure

Zend Technologies Inc. has announced the availability of Zend Framework 1.10, which among other new features includes support for Microsoft Windows Azure cloud services. We’re very excited about this key milestone, which is the result of a fruitful collaboration! This particular project started last year when we announced the Windows Azure SDK for PHP CTP release and upcoming support in Zend Framework. With the new Zend Framework 1.10, by simply using the new Zend_Service_WindowsAzure component, developers can easily call Windows Azure APIs from their PHP applications and leverage the storage services, including Blob Storage, Table Storage and Queue Service, offering them a way to accelerate web application development and scale up on demand.

Tutorial: Creating PHP CRUD Apps with SQL Server on your Server or in the Azure Cloud

Do you know PHP and have data in a Microsoft SQL Server database? Well we have an application wizard that will make your lives a little easier. The project, open source and hosted on CodePlex, will help you build a simple CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) application that works against Microsoft SQL Server, SQL Azure and Windows Azure Storage. The application is installable on Windows and supports data navigation, paging, sorting and UI customization using simple CSS.

Abstract:Ever since its recent launch, Windows 7 has been enjoying rapid consumer adoption and glowing press reviews. This makes it a great platform to launch your next Killer App! In this session, we will explore how to architect an application to take advantage of several compelling Windows 7 features including multi-touch, integrated search and multi-processor improvements. We will review how others have exploited this growing "Windows 7 channel" to deliver applications ranging from enterprise line of business applications to consumer oriented, "mass appeal" applications (think Social Networking clients). As a bonus, we’ll demonstrate how to quickly build Internet Explorer 8 Web Slices and Accelerators to complement your Killer App and to provide new channels to extend your reach. If you’ve got a great idea for a Killer App, don’t miss this session. If you design, architect, and/or develop applications for fun/profit, then this fast-paced session is for you.

Presenter BIO

Allan da Costa Pinto

Architect Evangelist, Microsoft

Allan da Costa Pinto recently celebrated 10 years with Microsoft. In that time he has worked in several roles ranging from software consulting to support to technical evangelism. He is currently an Architect Evangelist focused on jumpstarting software projects with Microsoft’s cutting edge technologies such as Windows 7, Windows Azure and Silverlight. He lives in Hartford CT with his amazing wife, 2 kids, and 1 cat.